Broadway Danny Rose

Broadway Danny Rose

Tonight we welcome Reed College professor Marat Grinberg, who will introduce one of Woody Allen’s classic, quip-rich comedies and talk about his new collection of essays, WOODY ON RYE: JEWISHNESS IN THE FILMS AND PLAYS OF WOODY ALLEN. In Allen’s film, Danny Rose (Allen) is a hapless but very conscientious theatrical agent who can only hold on to “talents” that no one else will represent—everything from dancing penguins to one-legged tap dancers, blind jugglers, and piano-playing birds. To help his top client, an aging singer on a comeback, Danny literally puts his life on the line, only to lose him to a bigger agent. As the story of Danny’s career and troubles unfolds in flashbacks told by his roster of offbeat clients, we see that through it all, Danny’s conviction that the things which count most in life—“acceptance, forgiveness, and love”—is unshaken. With Mia Farrow, Nick Apollo Forte, Milton Berle, and Sandy Baron.

Leonard Zelig (Allen) is the “human chameleon” in mock-documentary scenes that purport to be vintage newsreel clips of the 1920s and ’30s but are actually clever recreations. Zelig’s desire for conformity is manifested in his ability to take on the facial and vocal characteristics of whomever he happens to be around at the moment. He …